An oil and gas well is shown in FIG. 1 generally at 60. Well construction involves drilling a hole or borehole 62 in the surface 64 of land or ocean floor. The borehole 62 may be several thousand feet deep, and drilling is continued until the desired depth is reached. Fluids such as oil, gas and water reside in porous rock formations 68. A casing 72 is normally lowered into the borehole 62. The region between the casing 72 and rock formation 68 is filled with cement 70 to provide a hydraulic seal. Usually, tubing 74 is inserted into the hole 62, the tubing 74 including a packer 76 which comprises a seal. A packer fluid 78 is disposed between the casing 72 and tubing 74 annular region. Perforations 80 may be located in the casing 72 and cement 70, into the rock 68, as shown.
Production logging involves obtaining logging information about an active oil, gas or water-injection well while the well is flowing. A logging tool instrument package comprising sensors is lowered into a well, the well is flowed and measurements are taken. Production logging is generally considered the best method of determining actual downhole flow. A well log, a collection of data from measurements made in a well, is generated and is usually presented in a long strip chart paper format that may be in a format specified by the American Petroleum Institute (API), for example.
The general objective of production logging is to provide information for the diagnosis of a well. A wide variety of information is obtainable by production logging, including determining water entry location, flow profile, off depth perforations, gas influx locations, oil influx locations, non-performing perforations, thief zone stealing production, casing leaks, crossflow, flow behind casing, verification of new well flow integrity, and floodwater breakthrough, as examples. The benefits of production logging include increased hydrocarbon production, decreased water production, detection of mechanical problems and well damage, identification of unproductive intervals for remedial action, testing reservoir models, evaluation of drilling or completion effectiveness, monitoring Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) process, and increased profits, for example. An expert generally performs interpretation of the logging results.
In current practice, measurements are typically made in the central portion of the wellbore cross-section, such as of spinner rotation rate, fluid density and dielectric constant of the fluid mixture. These data may be interpreted in an attempt to determine the flow rate at any point along the borehole. Influx or exit rate over any interval is then determined by subtracting the flow rates at the two ends of the interval.
In most producing oil and gas wells, the wellbore itself generally contains a large volume percentage or fraction of water, but often little of this water flows to the surface. The water that does flow to the surface enters the wellbore, which usually already contains a large amount of water. The presence of water already in the wellbore, however, makes detection of the additional water entering the wellbore difficult and often beyond the ability of conventional production logging tools.
Furthermore, in deviated and horizontal wells with multiphase flow, and also in some vertical wells, conventional production logging methods are frequently misleading due to complex and varying flow regimes or patterns that cause misleading and non-representative readings. Generally, prior art production logging is performed in these complex flow regimes in the central area of the borehole and yields frequently misleading results, or may possess other severe limitations. Often the location of an influx of water, which is usually the information desired from production logging, is not discernable due to the small change in current measurement responses superimposed upon large variations caused by the multiphase flow conditions.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/880,402, filed Jun. 13, 2001, entitled “Conductive Fluid Logging Sensor and Method,” now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,711,947 B2, Ser. No. 10/600,053, filed Jun. 20, 2003, entitled “Conductive Fluid Logging Sensor and Method,” now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,799,407 B2, and Ser. No. 10/924,320, filed Aug. 23, 2004, entitled “Fluid Flow Measuring Device and Method of Manufacturing Thereof,” disclose apparatuses and methods for measuring the flow of fluid as it enters or exits an interior wall of a fluid conduit before the fluid becomes substantially intermixed with the fluids and the often complex flow pattern already in the fluid conduit. In particular, the apparatuses and methods may be used to measure the radial flow of conductive fluid through the wall of a fluid conduit, generally without being sensitive to non-conductive fluid flow or to non-radial conductive fluid flow. As an application example, embodiments may be used to detect and measure the radial flow of water through the conduit or borehole wall of an oil or gas well.
As described in the above-referenced patent applications, an electric field is induced when water or generally any material moves through a magnetic field. When the material has at least a small amount of conductivity, the voltage difference generated by the induced electric field between two points may be measured. Generally, the voltage from the induced electric field is proportional to the velocity of the fluid medium. If this voltage is measured, the velocity of the medium may be determined.
In some cases, however, another effect may also contribute to the measured voltage. In particular, a voltage drop due to the circulation of electrical currents in the fluid may introduce an extra voltage component into the measured voltage. These circulating electrical currents generally may be caused by the ubiquitous induced electric fields in the vicinity of the two electrodes, and may depend upon the velocity distribution of the fluid, as well as the values and locations of all the induced electric fields in the proximity of the measure electrodes.
Generally, the voltage difference in a localized area (such as between two closely spaced electrodes) contributed by these circulating currents is dependent upon the conductivity of the medium and the localized current density. In addition, the value of the circulating current may change from point to point. Thus, under some circumstances or in some applications, the measured voltage difference between two electrodes may introduce an error component and interfere with a reasonably accurate fluid velocity measurement.